West Brom feature: 40 years of Baggies left-backs

West Bromwich Albion v Manchester City in 2002: Neil Clement scores for Albion.

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19 David Smith - came from Blues and ended up at Grimsby where he still is... as commercial manager no less, a left winger by trade so we’re being unkind on two levels as this wasn’t a good team to play.. not Keith Burkinshaw’s nor Alan Buckley’s 4.5/10

18 Nicky Shorey - 18 months after leaving Albion in the Prem he was playing in the bottom tier with Portsmouth, none many players spend 18 months under Roy Hodgson and get worse defensively - 4.5/10

Nicky Shorey

17 Marek Cech - had Paul Robinson’s boots to fill after relegation and certainly prospered to an extent under Roberto Di Matteo in his promotion season before Roy Hodgson binned him - 5/10

16 Shane Nicholson - a rare good piece of business by Alan Buckley who signed him for £150,000 from Derby to fill in for David Smith who was filling in for Paul Edwards, definitely a step up for the team but after two seasons he rather went off the rails... 5/10

Shane Nicholson and Lee Hendrie

15 Liam Ridgewell - started off so, so well under Roy Hodgson after his £2 million switch from Blues but when he was asked to offer attacking drive down the left his game went to pieces under Steve Clarke and dare we mention him, Pepe Mel - 5.5/10

14 Graham Harbey - 1989 - 1992 was a period of demise that included Woking and relegation but he wasn’t at all bad, arrived from Ipswich and his prize for being every-present in the third tier under Gould? A move to Stoke City.. that’ll teach him - 6/10

13 Jason Van Blerk - far better than what had been before as seen when he survived Gary Megson’s playing cull, an Aussie who arrived from Man City and three years later was at Stockport - 6/10

Jason van Blerk

12 Garry Pendrey - clearly a far better player than 12th on our list but he was just a stand-in for Statham from 1979-81, added valuable experience for 18 games - 6.5/10

11 Steve Lilwall - very odd running style, left-back in a gloriously stylish footballing side under Ossie Ardiles, even though it was in the third tier - 6.5/10

10 Alan Merrick - Versatile player who came through the ranks in Alan Ashman’s era and had the misfortune to play most of his football under Don Howe, underrated - 6.5/10